Re: SMBus controller

On Jun 14, 2014, at 12:08, Sean Bruno <sbruno_at_ignoranthack.me> wrote:

> I note that my TLenovo 61 has one of these:
> 
> ichsmb0_at_pci0:0:31:3:	class=0x0c0500 card=0x20a917aa chip=0x283e8086
> rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
>    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
>    device     = '82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller'
>    class      = serial bus
>    subclass   = SMBus
> 
> 
> I'm pretty ignorant here, and I had to manually load ichsmb(4) to get it
> detected.  How can I see what's on here and what its purpose for
> existence might be.

It's a System Management Bus.  What you can do with it depends on what's connected to the bus and depends on what the manufacturer implemented.  It's probably connected (indirectly) to the battery, to the voltage sensors, to the fans, etc.

smbmsg(8) is used to communicate with the other devices on the bus, but I'm not sure if scanning devices will work.

--
Rui Paulo